The wholly owned subsidiary of $10.8 billion Amway Corporation, USA, said the plant will enable it to explore launching India specific products and increases the company’s ability to source locally.NEW DELHI: Direct selling firm Amway on Monday announced it has set up its first manufacturing facility in India on an investment of Rs 550 crore, in Tamil Nadu. The company said India is only the fourth country in the world where it has invested in a plant.

"Amway has spent in India, more than 30 per cent of $335 million allocated for global expansion," it said in a statement. This is Amway's third manufacturing plant outside of the US. The other plants are located in China and Vietnam. The firm said the new manufacturing facility can handle a turnover of Rs 6,500 crore, adding that a state-of-the-art R&D laboratory is being explored for the facility, furthering the plant's importance to Amway's global supply chain.

The wholly owned subsidiary of $10.8 billion Amway Corporation, USA, said the plant will enable it to explore launching India specific products and increases the company's ability to source locally.

Amway Corp president Doug DeVos said: "The manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu reiterates our commitment to 'Make in India, Make for India.' The operations will strengthen our efforts to develop India-specific products."

Amway India CEO Anshu Budhraja said that overall the firm has invested more than Rs 800 crore in the country. "The plant will provide direct employment to more than 400 people," he said.

He added that currently, the company provides income-generating opportunity to over 550,000 active distributors.

"We are planning to expand our product base and launch more than 10 new products in the country in the calendar year 2016," Budhraja said.

The new facility consists of nine production lines for nutrition, cosmetics and oral care products.